Householders: Use of Reasonable Force

Lord Goldsmith: Following the Home Secretary's Statement on 12 January, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) have today published a joint statement entitled Householders and the Use of Force Against Intruders. This contains a clear explanation of the law and also explains how the police and CPS would handle the investigation and how they would treat the householder. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of House.
	The CPS and the ACPO will be ensuring this guidance is widely available and the Home Office are working with them in promulgating it.

Planning Policy Statement 1

Lord Rooker: My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is today publishing the Government's new planning policy statement 1 (PPS1), Delivering Sustainable Development. Copies of the document will be made available in the Libraries of the House. This new statement which applies in England, replaces planning policy guidance note 1 (PPG1), General Policy and Principles, published in February 1997.
	PPS1 is one of the new series of shorter, sharper planning policy statements that are an important component of the Government's package of reforms for the planning system. PPS1 itself sets the context for the planning system and for other topic-specific policy statements. The policies set out in PPS1 will need to be taken into account by regional planning bodies in the preparation of regional spatial strategies, by the Mayor of London in relation to the spatial development strategy in London, and by local planning authorities in the preparation of local development documents. They may also be material to decisions on individual planning applications.
	The consultation draft of PPS1, entitled Creating Sustainable Communities, was published in February 2004. Over 300 responses to the consultation draft were received. The Government have carefully considered the views expressed in preparing the final version of the document.
	With its new title of Delivering Sustainable Development, PPS1 reflects the duty on regional and local planning bodies to contribute towards sustainable development when preparing development plans, as required by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The policies seek to ensure balance in the integrated consideration of environmental issues alongside the need for sustainable economic development and the aim of creating genuinely sustainable communities.
	There is also stronger emphasis on good design, reflecting the importance that the Government attach to ensuring high quality design is delivered through the planning system. PPS1 makes it clear that good design is indivisible from good planning in delivering safe, inclusive and successful communities. Spatial planning and the importance of ensuring community involvement in the planning system are other important issues covered by PPS1, within the context of the overall theme of the document.
	The original PPG1 also contained a broad range of material covering the general operation of the planning system. This was reproduced in a slightly updated form as Annexe B in the consultation draft of PPS1. Given the new emphasis of PPS1 on sustainable development, we do not consider this material suitable for inclusion in the PPS. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is, however, publishing this material in the interim as a separate document entitled, The Planning System: General Principles, alongside PPS1. We are also considering the scope and content of future "good practice" guidance to support PPS1.
	PPS1 demonstrates the Government's commitment to achieving more sustainable development through the reformed planning system. It provides an important, over-arching policy framework which should help improve people's lives and the places where they live, work and enjoy, whilst protecting our environment and natural resources—now and in the future. The Government believe this document should be broadly welcomed by planning authorities, developers and other business, community and environmental interests.

Audit Commission: Code of Practice

Lord Rooker: My right honourable friend the Minister for Local and Regional Government has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	I have laid the Audit Commission's revised code of audit practice for consideration by the House. If approved, the code will prescribe the way in which auditors, appointed by the commission, are to carry out their functions to audit local government and NHS bodies under the Audit Commission Act 1998.
	The Act requires the code to be approved by both Houses at least every five years. The current version of the code was approved in March 2000. The legislation also provides for the preparation of a "different Code" with respect to the audit of accounts of health services bodies. The Audit Commission has decided to prepare separate codes for local government and the NHS, primarily to reflect the increasingly divergent accounting, corporate governance and performance management frameworks in the two sectors, but also to facilitate the process of agreeing with the Healthcare Commission those elements of the draft NHS code which relate to auditors' local value for money work.
	The new codes reflect the significant changes both in the operating environment of local government and NHS bodies and in auditing standards and practice since the current code was prepared.

Educational Psychology

Lord Filkin: My right honourable friend the Minister for Children (Margaret Hodge) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	The department has facilitated discussions involving a range of partners, including the Local Government Association, on possible ways of streamlining the entry training route for educational psychologists (EPs). We have also commissioned two consultancy reports. The discussions to date have been positive but the expensive changes to the training route for EPs proposed do not provide a viable solution in present circumstances. The wider context for the work of EPs has also changed considerably over the past year.
	We need to work with stakeholders to clarify future demand and to assess how that demand can best be met. We therefore propose to commission a fundamental review of the functions of EPs in the context of wider discussions on children's workforce issues.
	Building on the report of the Educational Psychology Working Group published in 2000, we envisage the review will consider the key functions of EPs in the changing landscape of children's services, identifying the value they add through their particular, distinctive contribution, advise on linkages with other groups and consider implications for training and development within existing resources.
	Precise terms of reference for the review will be agreed with the local authority employers' side and we expect the bulk of the work to be completed in 2005.

Animal Research Organisations

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Hewitt) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	In July 2004, in the paper Animal Welfare, Human Rights—Protecting People from Animal Rights Extremists, the Government announced that they were considering the possibility of making it an offence to cause economic damage to the suppliers of firms or research groups engaged in the legitimate and licensed use of animals for research purposes. Since then the Government have consulted industry and other groups in developing proposals.
	The Government intend to table amendments to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, before the Report stage of the Bill, scheduled for 7 February. These will create two new offences, interference with contractual relationships so as to harm an animal research organisation, and intimidation of persons connected with animal research organisations.